The Waiting Game
by hariboo-smirks
Summary: set during The Road Not Taken in the 2 weeks Sam was missing. Jack and Vala friendship. oneshot


Not mine. Sorry if Jack and Vala are too OCC, but this plot bunny just wouldn't leave me alone. Excuse any mistakes, un-betaed.

The Waiting Game

Brigadier General Jack O'Neill usually looked for any excuse to head back to Colorado Springs. Hell, sometimes he even made some excuses up, the one about Teal'c's lactose intolerance came to mind, that had been a good one. Though Dr. Lam hadn't found it as funny, thinking that someone had messed around with her files. Spoilsport.

Unfortunately this wasn't ones of those times. When they had given him the new about Daniel it had Landry, Mitchell, Teal'c, Carter and even a phone call from Hammond to keep him in D.C. instead of flying out to join them every time they got a lead. Bur now it was Daniel _and_ Carter. They were lucky he didn't call Thor in. Not that he wasn't used to "Daniel's gone missing off-world" or "Colonel Carter's experiment has gone wrong" but he was _not _used to "Daniel **and** Carter are both missing due to completely different circumstances and we have no clue where/how they are", at least if they had a clue they could go clue… uh. gathering, yeah clue gathering. Yep, he didn't like this, not one bit. Some of the best scientific and military minds in the world and one death prone archeologist and genius Lt. Colonel manage to baffle them all.

When those two got back he was going to have a talk with them both. A long talk, full of why we don't stick our head in ancient databases and mess with ancient doohickeys. Nope. No touching any ancient technology for either of them; for a long, long time. Not that they'd listen. They should though.

Now he was heading out. Teal'c was off-world, Mitchell was being forced into finishing overdue paper work and Hank had not so subtly hinted that he get some lunch and fresh air, which meant to stop bugging him. But first he was going to make a little detour to Carter's lab. No reason, just popping in to see how Dr. Lee was doing.

Getting there he heard a voice, an accented voice.

"Well now, I know you rather not hear this Sam but we still have no word on Daniel which I find utterly absurd. I mean, really… honestly how hard is it to find one blue eyed, caffeine addicted rather absented minded slightly dashing ex-ascended archeologist who speaks 27, or is it 28, languages. It can't be that hard, after all _I_ found him and at the time I didn't know half of that stuff. Though granted I am _rather_ skilled", Vala spoke sounding completely normal but Jack was able to pick up on the hidden sadness and fear she held for her missing Daniel. It was in the way her voice slight caught when she described his best friend. She missed the kid. A lot.

"Oh! Sam…", the alien woman continued, "_please_, you have to figured out whatever it was that went wrong and get back. We can't do this without you. Mitchell and Teal'c are both getting restless, not being able to do anything, and remember we have one of these girls night out planned. You promised. A shopping trip and something about pediatricians, and if you think this little 'accident' is getting you of it, you better think twice missy."

Huh… Apparently Daniel hadn't been joking when he had told him that it wasn't fair that Vala had turned Sam over to the dark side. It had irritated Danny boy to no end that Carter now joined in Vala's torment of him. Not that Jack minded, it was always fun to see Daniel get all flustered and Vala seemed to have that skill in spades. It was something he had first noticed on that doomed trip to Washington last year. Even if he hadn't been all too happy about the whole bonded bracelet situation at first meeting the ex-thief had slowly changed his mind. In fact he now heartedly approved of her and Daniel "relationship". She kept Daniel on his toes. She also seemed to very protective of the archeologist (reports of her taking Ori staff fire and keeping her super powered daughter from killing Daniel came to mind) and that said all Jack needed to know.

Plus the fact that she was currently talking to an empty room to keep an out of phase Carter company, this fact alone kick her up a couple of notches in Jack's book. Collector's Simpson box set for Vala this Christmas.

"You know, I wouldn't it past Carter to get her self stuck out phase just so she could keep working on a project," Jack said walking into the room announcing his presence making Vala jump.

"Oh! Um… Hello there Ja- General I wasn't aware that you were in town. Um… How… how are you?" Vala stammered fidgeting slightly and looking a little embarrassed almost as if he had caught her doing something wrong.

"Good. Good. And you? Having a nice conversation?"

"Wha..? Oh! Um, well see this I can explain. We, and by we I mean myself, Mitchell and Teal'c; we thought that it must be rather lonely for Sam.. um.. I mean Colonel Carter, being all stuck out of phase so we decided to take shifts, you know, to keep her company and such; but I think Mitchell and Teal'c got a little tired and well one can only talk to an empty room for _so long _before you feel like an idiot. So yeah… we stopped, well rather they stopped and so did I, but I still come every now and again. You know keeping her updated on base gossip and stuff…Dr. Lee comes in here too, testing his doohickeys and techno thingies." Vala babbled on as if she was defending her right to be here and Jack realized she probably didn't like seeming too vulnerable to anyone, for any reason.

"Well I'm sure Carter appreciates the company," Jack said remembering something Carter had said in one of her emails in regards to the female alien ' I'll admit that she marches to her own beat but she's kinda sweet in her own Vala way'. It was good to know that Sam had a new female friend to bond with, she needed that- a buddy; in a way Mitchell, Teal'c and Daniel couldn't be no matter how much she cared about them. Making a choice, Jack asked,

"Soo… Hungry?"

"Ye…What?"

"You hungry? Gen. Landry practically is throwing me off base for the rest of the afternoon. So I was going to grab a bite at O'Malley's. Wanna join? Looks like you need to get off base as much as I do." Something which Jack hadn't even really noticed until now. While he had only met the alien femme fatale few times she was usually vibrating with barely contained excitement and though she was doing an admirable job of appearing fine he was now recognizing the faint lines and dark circles that came from worrying about people you care about.

"Are yo… Okay… I mean if you're sure you don't mind... yes. Love too, grab a bite."

"Good. Now why don't you run along and go get changed; meet me in Gen. Landry's office. I'll apologize to Carter for stealing you away", giving her a small smile. Vala smiled back and nodded heading out of the room.

Yeah… Sam and Daniel were still missing. But he knew they wouldn't be for too long. They had someone waiting for them to get back too.

"Jack?" he heard from down the hall, turning back to Vala he asked what was wrong. "Oh nothing, it's just isn't O'Malley's that place where you guys got into a fight because of those alien arm bands? Mitchell mentioned it once."

"Yeah same place, I'll tell you the whole story over lunch. It has some good Daniel parts, and two words: Carter, hustling. You'll like it, you can torture them with it when they gets back".

A/N: again I blame the evil bunnies in my head, the ending feels kinda flat, but I dunno, forgive my horrible editing skillz… hoped you liked anywayz!


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